We have been experiencing a high call volume requesting hair removal on kids as young as 9 years old. We had a call the other day from a mom who's son, 14, didn't like how hairy his legs were getting. I'm thinking hello, he's going through puberty what do you expect!

Anyway, we will not tx younger than 16 without endocrinologist and pediatrician and parent approval. When most pts hear this they go elsewhere. I'd like to hear some other thoughts on how your handling this. Do you tx or not?

I won't treat patients before puberty. What's the point.

You did the right thing. I have had similar issues. Parents/kids look at magazines and get an unrealistic view that body hair is somehow a disease and should not happen.

They have unrealistic expectations.

An update is a few of the mom's, who are our pts for other procedures, have reported that they have found pediatricians to perform hair removal on kids as young as 9.

What would be the point of that? The kid is not even in puberty yet.

What if the kid is a 6 years old girl, who have been teased constantly at school for having uper lips hair? Don´t you think her selfsteem is in jeopardy?

Yes, I have thought about the self esteem issue with kids and excess hair. I feel absolutely terrible for them. However, my director did not want to take the risk on working with kids, nor do I. We agreed it's better left to the pediatricians. Kids are not going to be compliant with sunscreen use and sun avoidance. Not worth the risk for a few hundred dollars.

There is still waxing and shaving.

We treat 14+ with parental and pediatrician consent for acne, and 16+ for hair reduction.

I let my wife talk me into doing our 10 year old's "unibrow" spot.
Worked fine, but we won't do any other kids. It's ridiculous.

What is so ridiculous about removing a "unibrow"? This is a great area to treat. I don't think "unibrows" will ever in style, it only takes a few pulses and in my experience, only a couple of treatments are needed. I'd love to get at my 17 year old son's unibrow but he won't let me (that's his choice). I am doing my 15 year old daughters legs and other areas. How great that she won't have to shave all the years I had to before laser hair removal. The problem with really young kids is their cooperation. I am currently treating a 12 year old girl with significant upper lip hair who WANTS to have it done. When we first got our machine 5 years ago, I tried some pulses on my daughters legs. She wanted to get rid of the hair but was too young to sit for the discomfort. Now that she is 15, she keeps asking me for it. I have no problem treating cooperative kids with reasonable parents for appropriate hair removal. I don't have an age limit but evaluate each case individually.

I treat 15+ with parental consent if they have a very bad hair situation.

We only treat 16+ , with parental signed consent, but we ask that they see an endocrionologist first. We lost a lot of patients this way, but I would not do it differently.
You can treat kids, but new hair will keep growing until they are 20 or more.
My 8 year old daughter has a lot of hair on the legs - but I will not touch her until she is 14 or more, and I will only do this because she's my kid and I can afford to do as many treatments as possible.